Titans, Pancakes, and the past
by llamazstalker
Summary: In the near future titans have taken over the world, forcing humanity into 3 walls. But what lay beyond these walls? What was the world like before the rule of the titans? SnK/AoT Slight AU.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N- Hello! This is probably just going to be brushed off as a random Mary-sue story, but it isn't. This was written for a school project on something that changed the world, so I chose titans. (Wow Fanfiction for homework ^^). I had to create my own charechters and stuff, so I created OCs for me and each of my friends. Please enjoy! ^^ _

Titans, pancakes, and the past

_What would life be like if titans existed? _

_ Catalyst narrative based of the manga Shingeki no Kyojin by Hajime Isayama _

_150 years ago, humanity was faced with a new enemy. Gigantic humanoid creatures called titans appeared all over the world, with no apparent goal except to devour humans one by one. It is unknown were titans came from- some said they were a product of our laboratories, others said they were divine punishment from god. But one thing was certain- humanity had to do something to prevent their extinction. Thus, they built three walls, Maria, Rose, and Sina, each 50 meters high. It was within these walls that humanity enjoyed 145 years of peace. _

_ In the year 2164, the colossal and armored titans breached wall Maria near the Shingashina district. Both titans possessed unnatural intellect and strength. Humanity lost 1/3 of its territory, and more than 20% of its population, and forced the survivors to retreat inside wall Rose. Five years later, they breached Trost. With the help of Eren Yeager, humanity regained the town. Now a group from the scouting legion has been ordered to go outside the walls and search for remnants of society before the walls, and hopefully a key to uncovering the secret of the titans….._

It's hard to imagine what life would be like if we weren't sitting inside these walls like caged birds. Long ago, as we are told, you could travel everywhere. To the sea- a large body of water that stretches as far as the eye can see. To the desert- a vast expanse of sand. Or to the artic, a place were everything is frozen. There were things called cell phones- you could call someone halfway around the world! Flying machines flew far out of even the colossal titan's grasp, and horseless wagons drove faster than any horse. Sometimes I envy our ancestors- their world was so much _better_ than ours. All we have is a world out of a medieval story, minus the princesses, magic, and happy endings. No magic to defeat the titans. Just our sweat, blood, and life. Like that's getting us anywhere.

Today, the 108th trainee squad was assigned by the _ahem_ lazy _ahem_  
Garrison, to clean the cannons positioned on wall Maria. It's not a pleasant task, and most certainly not the thing our squad would want to do the day before our graduation. Great idea garrison. We'd rather be putting our _Titan Killing skills _to work _Killing titans._

" Akitoooo." Whined Alex, as we scrubbed our thousandth cannon. (Well, it was the fifth. It felt more like the thousandth okay?) "My hands hurtttttt" Her bright orange hair was plastered to her head with sweat, and dulled by the annoying gunpowder in the cannons.

"Oh would you stop complaining?" I subconsciously tugged the hem of my military issued jacket, a habit I developed when I was annoyed. "I already have a headache from all this gunpowder and the heat, and the last thing I need is an annoying chibi- Chan making it worse."

"Sorry." We continued scrubbing in silence for a while longer.

"Hey, Alex?" I broke the silence.

"Yeah?"

"What branch are you going to chose after graduation?" I asked.

"Probably the garrison." She replied, focusing on scrubbing.

"What, do you want to clean stuff all day, and then sit around and drink when it's time to protect the wall?" I joked, eliciting a small giggle from the ginger. "But seriously? Do you _want _to spend you whole life inside the wall?"

"Beats getting eaten." My friend shrugged nonchalantly. "Let me guess. You're going to choose the scouting legion?"

"Yup."

"Heh I would have never guessed." She replied sarcastically. "If I were you, I'd join the military police, live in, Sina, and NOT get eaten."

"Well, I'd rather see the world then rot away fat and pampered in the walls."

"Do you know how many people would kill to be in the top ten?" Alex's brown eyes flared. "Your life would be safe. And you are going to give up that opportunity?"

"It's not my fault I'm not a coward."

The girl's face grew red with annoyance. "Yeah more like an idiot."  
"What did you say?" I could feel anger settling in my chest.

"I said you were an idiot!"

"Yeah, and you are a coward!"

"Baka!"

"Coward!"

We shouted insults at each other, each time our voices getting louder.

"COWBUTTIDIOT"

"BAKA COWARD USAGI!"

"YOU ARE GOING TO DIEEE."

"COWARD. I'LL THROW YOU OFF THE WALL!"

"You want to go?" Alex held out her skinny arms in a _come at me bro _kind of

fashion. "I'll show you why I am the best at hand to hand combat." Fighting Alex probably wasn't such a good idea- despite her petite stature; the ginger could take down full-grown drill instructors twice her size.

"Sure." I smirked with the confidence of a too-cocky idiot. (Ok so maybe Alex

was right. I was (and still am) lacking common sense. But I'll never admit that.)

"What are you girls doing?" Both Alex and I immediately stopped our bickering. Behind us stood Kaede, forehead crinkled in disapproval. "Fighting again?" the girl ran her fingers through her black hair in annoyance. "What did I tell you about _behaving_ yourselves? We graduate tomorrow."

"You told us not to fight, or else the drill instructors will make us go without dinner." Alex and I montoned.

"Yes." The older girl sighed. "You know, I really should report you to commander b-"

Immediately Alex and I began fake sobbing at the prospect of not having any food.

"My potatoes! Oh what will become of the potatoes that are meant to be on my dinner plate?" I pretended to faint in an over-dramatic way.

"I'll wither away and die!" Alex swooned over the cannon.

"You two." Kaede sighed. "It's hard to believe you two are 13 and still act this way." She jabbed her thumb in the direction of the mess hall. "I wasn't going to report you, but I will if you don't go and eat and stop annoying me."

"YAY FOOOD!" Alex and I ran down the wall, eager to eat, our argument forgotten.

"So Kira." I slid into the seat next to my friend. "What branch are you going to chose?"

"Mhulitery puhlice" She responded through a mouthful of bread.

"Huh?"

"Military police. Let me guess. You are going into the scouting legion?"

"Yup!" I responded enthusiastically.

"It's pretty dangerous you know." Kaede replied. "There is a high possibility you'll be eaten."

"It's kind of screwed up a thirteen-year-old would want to join the scouting legion. It's really not a good idea." Kira peered at me over her glasses. "Are you mentally challenged or just lacking common sense?"

"Neither. And don't you think it's a little screwed up that the king would allow us to join the military at 11?" I mean what kind of government allows that? Back before the titans, you had to be at least 16 to join.

"It takes two years to train so.." Alex chimed in.

"You. Are. Not. Helping." I glared daggers at the ginger.

"You want to finish what you started earlier?" She stood up, slamming her palms on the table.

"Sure." I smirked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Sit down!" Kira hissed, pulling me down by my shirt. "Do you want to get in trouble? People are staring!" The entire 108th trainee squad had turned their heads to stare at me and Alex. That meant about two hundred people.

"Good thing they are staring." I smiled "Why, who wouldn't want to stare at this beautiful face." I joked. The dining hall broke out in hearty laughter.

"I swear you two will be the death of me." Kaede sighed like she would at two four-year-olds. "Now shut up, act your age, and eat your dinner. You know, Akito, with all you say about joining the scouting legion, don't you think a little bit of maturity wouldn't hurt, joining the most dangerous branch and all?"

"I guess so."

Alex sat across the table, a triumphant smile on her face.

"And you missy, don't be an instigator." Kaede pointed her finger accusingly at the ginger.

We spent the rest of the meal in silence. When the candles had begun to burn low, Kira stood up and stretched.

"Well I'm off to get my beauty sleep." She yawned.

"Like that is working." I joked. Kira glared at me through her sleepy brown eyes.

"If I wasn't so tired I'd shank you."

'I'd like to see you try."

Not long after Kira left, the dining hall began to empty until just I, Kaede, and Alex remained, a few flickering flames illuminating the shadowy room.

"You know Akito." Kaede began. "We really are just trying to look out for you. We don't want to see you die so early."

"Which I won't."

"If you are so bent on seeing the world" Alex remarked "Why don't you just look at it in books and photographs?"

" Been there, done that. So yeah no." I sighed, getting up.

"Akito?" Kaede called after me as I was leaving the dining hall.

" Yeah?"

"If you do see what is left of the world before titans, you wouldn't mind telling me about it, right?" the raven haired girl asked a small glint of curiosity in her eyes.

"Sure." I replied, stepping into the cool night air.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning dawned bright and clear. Despite the "beauty" of the morning, I honestly didn't want to get up. I mean c'mon, a nice warm bed is better than going out in the cold weather. In the middle of March it is no fun to get up to a bunkhouse with no heat. Apparently we trainees can't be trusted with fire. (Yet another thing I hate titans for. Not only do they eat people, they called a wonderful- sounding thing called heaters to disappear. They were like fire place, except they used one fire to heat an entire building!)

"Akito wake up!" Kira poked me for the trillionth time.

"No."

"Hold up. I got this." Kaede appeared, sounding confident. "Akito, it's time to get up."

"No." I snuggled even deeper in my nest of blankets, probably sounding like a defiant child.

"Asking politely isn't going to help in this situation, Kaede." Kira sighed. "I tried that."

"Who said I was going to ask politely?" You could practically hear the smirk in the girl's voice. "Akito, wake up. It's breakfast time."

"No."

"Fine then. I didn't want to have to do this. Akito-chan you better get up or else all the pancakes will be gone."

"Pancakes you say?" I poked an eye out over the sheets, doubtingly. In a time of food shortage, pancakes were a delicacy. Having lost valuable farmland to the titans, humanity was faced with a famine.

"Yes, pancakes. Do you think I would lie to you about them?"

I immediately bounded out of bed.

"Pancakes, pancakes!" I sang as I tugged my jacket on. "Yummy yummy food!"

When we arrived at the dining hall, only half the seats were taken.

"How come no one's here?" I asked.

"Well how do you think they can afford to give us pancakes?" Kaede replied.

"Because no one's here."

"Exactly. But why?" Apparently Kira didn't get it as well.

"Pre-graduation jitters. Less people are likely to come and eat when they are nervous. The last thing they want to do is throw up in front of their new commanders. This way they don't have to spend as much money on food." The raven- haired girl stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Geeze Kaede. Just the thing I want to hear before I eat." Complained Kira, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

"Well it's true." I remarked as we made our way to our seats. "You are just a wimp."

"Shu- uh Alex?" Kira's brown eyes widened in disbelief. Stacked on Alex's plate were about 18 pancakes. "Are you really going to eat them all?"

Alex nodded her head in reply, mouth too full to speak. The rest of us sat down.

Kaede slyly pulled a bottle from the inside of her jacket.

"Hey what's that?" Alex asked, eyes shining.

"Maple syrup." Kaede whispered, quickly pouring the bottle's amber contents on her breakfast.

"How in the name of Sina did you get that?" I practically screamed. Maple syrup was a precious commodity, which only rich people could afford.

"First of all, quiet down." Kaede's brown eyes conveyed a seriousness I had never seen as she cradled the glass bottle like a baby.

"Did you happen to get that illegally?" Alex asked. "Why are you being so protective of it?"

"Because I love it." She whispered. "Maple syrup is just..."

"Like Alex and her love for all food? Or Akito and the scouting legion?" Kira nonchalantly remarked.

" But I thought she was what they called Asian. Not those crazy people called Canadian hockey players who used to ride moose to school." Stated Alex.

"Do you even know what a moose is?" Kira rolled her eyes.

"Or hockey?"

"Nope." He ginger resumed eating.

"Hey Kaede." I put my elbow on the wooden table, and raised my eyebrows in a suggestive manner. "You know what your name means?"

"Mhm?"

"Maple. So technically, this is cannibalism."

Normally polite Kaede spit out the contents of her mouth, covering the table in pancake gunk.

"You…"

"Payback!" Shouted Kira, high-fiving me.

"Congratulations. You have all graduated, and are now full-fledged

soldiers." The drill instructor's voice boomed over the training ground, 156 trainees

standing nervously below the makeshift wooden stage. "You have survived your training,

and it is up to you to choose which path you will take. The Garrison, who protect the

walls, The Military police, who protect the king and retain order, or the Scouting legion,

who scout territory and fight titans on their own turf. It is up to you what branch you

choose, however the military police is only open to the top 10."

"Yes sir!" The crowd saluted the drill instructor- left fist in the small of our back, right arm crossed over our chest, fist over our heart.

"Now please give your full attention and respect to Commander Erwin Smith of the scouting legion.

A blonde man about thirty stepped to the front of the small crowd of drill instructors and military personnel on the stage. He was sharply dressed in the scouting legion uniform- similar to the trainee's. Brown cropped jacket, white shirt, white pants, and knee-high chocolate-brown boots. On the back of his jacket I knew was the scouting legion crest, also known as the "Wings of Freedom", representing the freedom the members had to travel outside the walls and eventually- humanity's freedom from the titans. His blue eyes scanned the crowd, scrutinizing us like we were animals on the auction block.

"I'm not going to glorify the scouting legion in any way." Commander Erwin began his voice pleasantly deep "As you all know, roughly 20% of our troops do not make it back from the battlefield. We have lost a total of 90% of our troops in 4 years. We also estimate at least 5 times as many soldiers will die in the next 5 years. Those who are still willing to lay your life down please stay here. Let me repeat my self- most of you who stay here will not live much longer. Those who wish to leave and join another branch are dismissed now."

A ripple of disapprovalwent through the crowd, throngs of trainees filing out the training ground.

"Well Akito, looks like this is goodbye." Kaede, Kira, and Alex all smiled.

"Don't get eaten." The ginger smiled, lightly hugged me, and left.

"Yeah be careful." Kira shook my hand. "We don't want to hear about you getting eaten."

"Can do. But remember Kira" I pointed my finger at her and narrowed my eyes in a comical way "don't eat too much food or you'll explode. You know what they say about malnourished people like us. If you eat too much rich people food in Sina, you'll get too fat and die."

"Um.. Ok?" Kira gave me an _Akito-is-being-kind-of-strange-again-look _through her glasses.

Kaede just sighed. "What am I going to do with you kid?"

I grinned "Nothing. I won't be around to bother you anymore."

Glasses smirked. "It's going to be quiet. Are you sure you don't want to come with us?"

"Nope" My mind was already made up. I would see the world, like it was before the titans. What would it matter if a few titans got in my way? "I'm staying."

"Ok. Well, I guess this is goodbye then." Kaede smiled, her dark eyes clouded with sadness.

"Don't forget to write us!" Kira called out as she practically drug an emotional Kaede away.

"But I don't want to leave her." Kaede complained "she's just a kid. "

"Man up and stop acting like her mother. She's thirteen years old!" Kira for once was the mature one. "Now get up and walk. Do you really think it is going to leave a good first impression on the commander Kaede, if your backside is covered in dust?" I giggled, watching my friends walk (Well, kind of. Kaede was being drug away still, and Kira was hunched over, trying to pull the larger girl.) Away until they disappeared behind the barracks.

Once the stragglers had cleared out, all that were left were 13 trainees. 13 people out of 156 willing to join the scouting legion. Some people stood in groups, whispering, whilst others stood alone, staring nervously at the commander. I recognized a few who I had talked to before, and knew from around base. It would be kind of awkward to not know anyone, having to rely on them and all.

"I applaud you for your bravery and courage." Commander Erwin's booming voice silenced the crowd. (If you could have even called us that.) "From this point forth, you are all members of the scouting legion, who have my full respect. I applaud you for your bravery. That is all." With that, Erwin strode off the stage in the same dignified manner he had appeared.

"Geez that man is pretty strange. I mean, seriously? Who gives ridiculous statistics like that and expects anyone to join the legion?" A familiar voice behind me stated.

"Well we did." Another voice added.

"Point taken Misaki- HEY LOOK IT'S AKITO!" The first voice shouted, causing me to jump in surprise.

"Don't scare me like that!" I whirled around, eyes wide with surprise.

"Sorry." A brunette rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

"No that's okay Miyabi."

"Cool. Well this is Misaki." She gestured to the blonde standing to her right. "Misaki, this is Akito." Miyabi introduced me.

"Um excuse me? I prefer the title 'Akito the awesome titan vanquisher.'" I puffed

out my chest in a mock proud way.

"I'm pretty sure you haven't killed any titans, Akito." The brunette sighed.

"I think it's a joke." Misaki stated, placing a hand on her forehead.

"Bingo! Point for Misaki!" We began moving towards the wagons meant to take

us to the scouting legion HQ. "Actually, can I call you Blondie? I never had a blonde friend before. All of 'em were either brunettes, oh yeah and there was ginger."

'What is your problem?" Misaki sounded exasperated.

"Nothing Blondie."


End file.
